You've Been Caged; Why Is It Being Punished?

On September 27th 2013, Fairview High School got Caged. The Caging event identified the question, "When do pranks become inappropriate?" Pranking can range from funny to harmful, so who determines when the line is crossed?
When Kaili Mouscher, a junior at Fairview High School, was asked what Caging is, she said “Putting Nicolas Cage’s face up everywhere… I’ve always assumed it started on Tumblr."
“I think a lot of students thought it was funny and everyone else was just like ‘I didn’t know this was a thing’... People thought it was stupid, funny or they were completely indifferent.” Said a student participant, who wishes to stay anonymous. Mouscher said “I found it [the Caged prank] sort of amusing, there were some [pictures] that were really great.”
“By first period most of them had been taken down… They [the administration] said that they did it because we called it a prank instead of calling it a decoration… They found the actual instigator and then a couple other people that were involved and gave them community service… But nothing too serious… I just think they’re always concerned about the things that aren’t Fairview approved, that they’ll be inappropriate.” said the anonymous student.
Mr. Stensrud said, “I thought some aspects of it [the Caging] were very clever, but senior pranks are kind of a delicate line and I don’t think it was really truly a senior prank. But you don’t want to go down the road… Senior pranks can go from being very, very clever, to being extremely non-clever and damaging and costly, which is why we discourage senior pranks.”
The administration rightfully took down the pictures. Although the prank was funny and not disruptive, as Mr. Stensrud said, there is a fine line between amusing and profane. Something that may start as harmless can becoming destructive and unsafe. Setting a precedent that all pranks are unacceptable keeps this from becoming an issue, and keeps the decision of what is respectful versus disrespectful out of the hands of students.